Introduction:

African Soul Initiative is pleased to present a report on the university scholarship program for the 2023 January Intake, implemented from November 2022 to December 2022 with funding from our IT partner, Bootim Group Inc. and Metropolitan International University. African Soul Initiative sought to restore the hope of young people who are unable continue with their university education because of financial constraints by providing them with university scholarships.

The current global economic crisis brought about by the current war in Ukraine and the previous COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected most of the world economies, with Uganda inclusive. The majority of families within our communities have lost their financial muscle and as result most of their children have dropped out of school immediately after high school graduation. This means that they cannot be able to continue with their university or higher education.

It’s on this note that African Soul Initiative initiated this program to restore the hope of these young people from less privileged families & best performers at both “O” & “A” Level be able to continue pursuing their higher level of education at the University. These students were able to join University under this program to do the course of their choice.  By attending University, they are better prepared for their future and become more responsible members of their community.

All these bursaries were awarded to the interested members of this organization who applied through our computerized systems known as “Education Scholarship System (ESS)”. The ESS system was developed specifically to help and ease the application process while helping everyone from the grass root.

By statistics, Wakiso has the highest number of Schools and students seating for high school UNEB exams. As a result, the number of high school dropout has increased due to their inability to continue with their education. As an organization we hope to bring this number down through this University education sponsorship program.

Goals & Objectives

The following are the main objectives for this activity:-

1.    To secure 100 bursaries for both “A” & “O” Level members of African Soul Initiative who wish to pursue higher education at universities.

2.    To create awareness and promote the value of education in our community

3.    To broaden our organization’s network through partnering with higher institutions and different members of the community to support and benefit from the implementation of this activity.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of this activity were this organization’s members who had completed either “A” or “O” levels of learning and wished to continue to university.

Achievements

The following are the achievements obtained while implementing this activity.

 Figure 1: some of the beneficiaries of University Scholarships

 Source of Funding

The major source of funding for this organization is through its annual subscription fees paid by its registered members on relevant membership classification. However, the organization partners with various cooperate organizations that support our work efforts.

In relation to the above, this activity was majorly supported by the following privately held companies: -

1.  Bootim Group Inc.

Bootim Group is an Information Technology firm registered in Uganda offering systems and software development, website designing, hosting and maintenance. The company has got tremendous experience in the software and internet technology. Bootim Group majorly contributed in the development of the online scholarship system that accelerated the success of this activity. More information about this partner can be got from their official website found at https://web.bootim.net

2.  Wambah Holdings Limited

Wambah is an externalization and recruiting company registered in Uganda connecting Uganda citizens to the outside world job market. The company facilitated the activity with funds that majorly helped to run the system and facilitate 24/7 access of this online system and later fancied the activity.

3.  Faizhad Stationers

Faizhad stationers is a registered business operating in Nansana municipality, it deals in stationary materials as well as proving secretarial services within the community. Faizhad Stationers provided support during community mobilization in the execution of this program’s activity.

4.  Access Financial Networks (u) Limited

Access Financial Networks is a consultancy firm registered in Uganda offering consultancy services in real estate, financial and business management prospects. Access Financial network provided support in form of research from the grass root level. They offered knowledge in project planning which help and paved way for the success of this activity mostly from the planning level.

Challenges

There were several challenges found during the implementation of this activity of which included the following: -

I)     Most Applicants were IT ignorant. The few who managed to succeed in the application of this bursary program got some defined difficulties whereas the majority couldn’t be able to use our online system at all.

II)    Lack of trust from the community. Due to consistent use of internet today, many individuals have been defrauded many times thus couldn’t unlock their trust that easily. It took us some time to impress and convince them to register and involve themselves in this activity.

III)  Our narrow network also became a challenge. The organization is 2 years in service and hasn’t broaden its network to the larger extent. Therefore, most of the community needed to take time to recognize the brand and universities too were hesitant in partnering with our organization to facilitate this activity.

IV) Financial limitations. There we limitations financially to both the organization and the beneficiaries of this program. Although there were funders of this program, they couldn’t raise up to 50 million that was budgeted to run the program. This gave us a challenge during implementation of this activity. On the side of applicants, they reported financial limitations whereby they faced limited access to smart devices as well as high rates of internet bundles.

Long-term Impact

We believe that this program will not only promote education at higher levels of learning but will also improve the livelihoods of many suffering voices in the community, for they will be employable and also be able to earn a better salary and in return help their respective families.

Solutions and recommendations  

Computer training programs were initiated to help and enlighten the community about the use of computers of which could accelerate their work follow and in return, they would be able to use online systems.

Although we have been able to pattern with various cooperate companies to support and help us in our source of work, we still need more support as far as finance is concerned. We call up the general public to support us in order for us to extend such educational services to the less privileged and under-served community.

Conclusion

In the future, African Soul Initiative intends to secure as many universities scholarship bursaries as possible. We plan to help thousands of young people in the country be able to access university education after their Ordinary and Advanced levels of education. With the support from your honorable office, we believe that we can achieve this at all costs.  At African Soul Initiative, we create life changing wishes for everyone and seek for the world without suffering.